French authorities have dismantled a large methamphetamine laboratory operating in Le Val, a small village in the Var region and home to just 4,300 people.
The site was concealed inside ordinary garage boxes and was linked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
According to investigators cited by CNEWS, five chemists affiliated with the cartel arrived in Le Val a little over two years ago to establish the laboratory. They trained around 15 people on site before returning to Mexico.
When police raided the premises, the laboratory was running at full capacity. Fifteen individuals were arrested at the site.
The mayor, Jérémy Giuliano, told the French broadcaster that there had been no outward signs of activity: “I passed by every day. They are garage boxes like you can find in several villages,” he said, adding that the setup generated no nuisance and was intentionally designed to avoid attracting attention.
Marseilles. France
The French port city is now a major narcotics hub for Europe.
Last year, a 15-year-old was stabbed 50 times and burned alive in the drug violence as murders hit record highs.
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Police estimate that approximately 400 kilograms of methamphetamine were produced. The drugs were distributed locally and exported abroad, including to New Zealand. Investigators value the profits at more than €11 million.
Residents interviewed said the laboratory was eventually detected after information leaked and neighbors noticed repeated van movements in and out of the site.
French investigators and Europol documents indicate that the Le Val laboratory is not an isolated case. In a separate case from Marseille in May, French gendarmes and Belgian authorities, supported by Europol, dismantled a criminal network involved in the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs that had “strong ties to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.”
An action day that spanned both France and Belgium was initiated following the June 2024 seizure of 216 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, which led investigators to the unraveling of the criminal network.
The 2025 threat assessment by France’s Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) concluded that foreign cartels are now active alongside French networks. Le Monde’s reporting on the document noted that after the interception of multiple drug “mules” in Los Angeles bound for French Polynesia, and the seizure of a container routed towards Papeete, the authorities documented the “implication in France of the Sinaloa cartel.”
It described France as both a major consumer market and a transit hub and lists Sinaloa among several international organizations operating on French-linked routes.
French anti-drug officials warn that such cases illustrate how Sinaloa’s presence in France is structured: not through a large visible armed presence, but via technical experts sent to set up laboratories, cooperation with local and European gangs for logistics and distribution, and use of French or French-linked financial channels for laundering and reinvestment.
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